Achieving results so quickly may inspire you to keep going with your low-carb plan. Don't check the scale too often, though. When you strength-train during your low-carb diet, you'll lose fat and gain muscle, so it may look as if you're not getting results when you step on the scale. Using a tape measure or getting a body fat percentage assessment once a month may yield a truer picture of how your efforts are panning out.
Most of the initial weight you lose on a low-carb diet is water weight, and weight loss usually slows after the first couple of weeks. Low-carb dieters often complain about hitting a plateau in which they experience no weight loss at all or disappointing results.
In one study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May , subjects on a low-carb diet had better weight-loss results than conventional dieters at both the three- and six-month marks, but at 12 months, the difference in weight loss was insignificant. You may need to re-assess the foods you've added back into your regimen if your results stall.
You might be eating too many fruits or nuts, or indulging in processed treats like muffins and cookies that are marketed as "low-carb. Lifestyle factors like not enough sleep, too much stress and too little exercise can also affect your results. And, if you are taking in more calories than you're burning, you may end up gaining weight — even if your calories are all technically low-carb.
If you cut out alcohol when you first started your low-carb diet, adding it back in might stymie your weight-loss efforts. That's because your body burns alcohol instead of fat, postponing weight loss. Alcohol may also make you crave sugary foods or lead to impaired reason and poor food choices.
It's not clear what kind of possible long-term health risks a low-carb diet may pose. Restricting carbs in the long term they may result in vitamin or mineral deficiencies and gastrointestinal disturbances. Some health experts believe that if you eat large amounts of fat and protein from animal sources, your risk of heart disease or certain cancers may actually increase.
If you opt to follow a low-carb diet, pay attention to the fats and proteins you choose. Limit foods with saturated and trans fats, such as meat and high-fat dairy products, which may increase your risk for heart disease. There is a problem with information submitted for this request. Sign up for free, and stay up-to-date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID, plus expert advice on managing your health. Error Email field is required. Error Include a valid email address.
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This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here. This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. See more conditions. Healthy Lifestyle Weight loss. Products and services. Low-carb diet: Can it help you lose weight? Could a low-carb diet give you an edge in losing weight? By Mayo Clinic Staff.
Thank you for Subscribing Our Housecall e-newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest health information. Please try again. Something went wrong on our side, please try again. Show references Ebbeling CB, et al. Effects of a low carbohydrate diet on energy expenditure during weight loss maintenance: Randomized trial. Raynor HA, et al. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Interventions for the treatment of overweight and obesity in adults.
You need to be prepared for ups, downs and plateaus on your weight loss journey. The question as to whether low-carb fat loss is more effective than slimming down on a low-fat diet rages back and forth. Despite low-carb diets being a huge craze, it's not clear cut that they are always the best at blitzing fat. In fact, a September study in the journal Cell Metabolism , conducted at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, found that cutting dietary fat reduced body fat more than cutting carbs.
In the study, 19 non-diabetic men and women with obesity spent two separate extended visits in a metabolic unit, allowing their food and activity levels to be strictly controlled.
On one visit they were fed 30 percent fewer carb calories and on the other they were fed 30 percent fewer fat calories protein levels stayed the same. Extrapolating their results into the future, the researchers surmised that when people reduce their calorie intake by the same amount, they will lose quite similar amounts of fat over time — regardless of the ratio of fat or carb in their diet.
Do as Harvard Health Publishing suggests and add resistance training like weights, press ups and planks to your fitness regimen. That said, reduced carb diets do appear to offer benefits to specific groups — if you have blood sugar control issues, it could definitely be the way to go to maintain a healthy weight. In a November article in the British Medical Journal , people who had already lost about 12 percent of their starting weight averaging 25 pounds were randomly assigned to one of these diet groups:.
What the researchers found was that people could eat slightly more calories and still maintain their weight when the proportion of carbohydrate in their diet was lower. But this was only really marked in individuals who secreted high levels of insulin. The researchers said this showed a low-carb diet is probably the most effective way to lose or maintain weight if you have insulin resistance or diabetes. However, a November editorial in Science suggests that for most people, focusing on diet quality — replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats and replacing refined carbohydrates with whole grains and non-starchy vegetables — allows effective weight management within a broad range of fat-to-carbohydrate ratios.
A ketogenic diet is about as extreme as you can go with carbohydrate restriction. The premise of the "keto" variety of low-carb weight loss is that if you deprive the body of glucose, an alternative fuel called ketones are produced from stored fat.
As described by the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health , when carbohydrates are slashed on the keto diet — often to as low as 20 grams a day — the body first pulls stored glucose from the stored glycogen in liver and muscles and then, when glucose stores are fully depleted, begins using fat as its primary fuel, while drastically dialing down production of insulin.
When you are in "ketosis," ketones produced from fat in the liver are used to fuel the body and brain instead of glucose. Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health lists the following purported theories as to how maintaining ketosis may promote fat loss — though they point out these have not been consistently shown by research.
The keto diet could potentially work if you have had no luck at all losing weight with other methods, but advice from a health professional such as a dietitian or doctor is recommended.
You'll need to take care to avoid a nutritional deficiency, and ideally to keep an eye on your blood work in case of any unfavorable biochemical changes. Here's What You Should Know.
It's possible to obsess too much about which regimen is going to burn fat fast, when what's more important is the overall healthiness of the diet you choose. Unfortunately, the nutritional value of most low-carb diets, the keto diet in particular, comes up rather lacking, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Nutrient-rich vegetables and fruits tend to be cut out, which means intakes of vitamin A, C, K and folate usually are low. And removing high-fiber whole grains increases the risk for constipation — keto dieters may even end up requiring fiber supplements to help stay regular, which is not healthy.
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